Monday, October 8, 2012

The amount of time one spends at a coffee shop varies. There's the grab and
go for a quick caffeine fix, there's the meeting or coffee date, and then
there's the working afternoons or nights. There are three things I look for in
a coffee shop to work in: good coffee, free wi-fi (and plugs), free and easy
parking, and good pastries. Graffiti on La Brea has all these.

I was worried about parking when I was heading there at first, but it turns
out Graffiti has its own parking lot. It's small, but cars come and go all the
time, so you're likely to get a free parking spot and can stay for hours.

The inside of Graffiti is spacious and bright with its white walls, floors,
and tables. It's a large, almost art gallery-like space with plenty of seatings for everyone.

Graffiti doesn't roast their own coffee or bake their own pastries, instead it curates from LA's well known names. OK, I should've tried the drip coffee or espresso, but it was so hot that day I had to go for a cold one. The signature iced mocha is made with Intelligentsia coffee and Bouchon chocolate ganache. It's not cheap (nor are the pastries) at around $5.50, but with the free parking it was well worth the 2-3 hours I spent getting my work done there.

The pastries here come from Bouchon Bakery and Cake Monkey.

With a chocolate
croissant from Bouchon, a cup of coffee, free wi-fi and parking, and plenty of
plugs, I could (and did) stay here for hours!

Soon, they will have ice cream from Fonuts (affogatos!) as well along with
soup and sandwiches from other LA's favorite joints.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

I don't really drink coffee.But I still wanted to know what all the rave surrounding Blue Bottle Coffee is all about, so since I had time to wait around for a friend after landing in SFO last time, I took the BART down to Blue Bottle.

I had a hard time finding it since Mint is this tiny street that leads into a plaza and furthermore the entrance is not actually even on Mint (just go around the corner!)

The cafe is small, with a big rectangular table in the middle where people can sit on stools and enjoy their drinks (and no, there's no wi-fi).You can see their fancy machineries, chemex filters etc through a glass divider.Again, I'm not really a coffee drinker, so I ordered the mocha - made with Recchiuti chocolate.Just before this I finally tried out LaMill's (LA Mill? which is it?) mocha, made with Valrhona chocolate!Both are very good. I prefer the richer taste of the Valrhona, but coffee-wise? I can distinguish between bad coffee and good coffee, but not the variations of good coffee, so ...

I was merely enjoying time to myself on a cold day, and can't tell you much about their coffee!Their pastry selection is limited and pricey. When I was there the wait was not too bad until this group of coffee businessmen from overseas came and placed a giant order!Their staff is very friendly and helpful. Overall it was a great experience!

Oh I did finally take my laptop out into the plaza - where they have free wi-fi :)Blue Bottle Cafe66 Mint St.San Francisco, CA‎(415) 495-3394‎www.bluebottlecoffee.net

Saturday, September 27, 2008

After hearing so much about LA Mill, I finally made an excuse to have brunch there. I was going to the German Beer Tasting at Loft218 that afternoon and LA Mill was only 6 miles away, so I convinced rumdood (pretty easily, I think) that this was the best bet for lunch.

I'm not a coffee connoisseur and do not even normally drink coffee, so my main attraction to LA Mill is the Cimarusti-designed menu. However, I thought I would order some sort of coffee based drink anyway and when I saw "Valrhona Mocha" on the menu, my choice was easily made. Put Valrhona in front of anything and I'll probably order it ...Not a coffee connoisseur but I can say I did enjoy this cup of mocha. Not sweet, but smooth and very enjoyable. Not bitter and doesn't leave a bad lingering aftertaste either.

Eggs being my staple brunch food, I had to skip the paninis for today and went for the Soft Scramble with Dungeness Crab:The eggs scramble preparation was absolutely perfect for me. Very soft and moist. The sprinklings of green onions gave great pizzazz to the flavor of the dish as a whole. The dungeness crab was nice and fresh although I would've liked a little more :)The dish itself is relatively small. A nice, light breakfast. Which is probably good for me for a change, but at $14 was not entirely a bargain.

There was nothing particularly interesting on the dessert menu that day. Having had an enjoyable lunch, I definitely want to go back for dinner AND dessert on another day.